Scales into Skin
by Arrowsforever
Summary: A sort-of prequel to The Goddess of Light. Hey, I like writing about it, okay? Anyway, this is the story of Clawdite bounty hunter Zam Wessel, her backstabbing lover, her best friend, and the child she never wanted.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Zam Wessel is another awesome female character who doesn't get enough attention. So I wrote this, some background on Shanti's parents. And I made her father up completely._

_I don't own Star Wars or any of the characters used here except Shanti's father. Yay, I remembered the disclaimed this time! *goes to add to other fics*_

* * *

The tall lizard creature raised the weapon to her shoulder and aimed. The end of her long rifle tracked her prey as he walked across the platform. A tall human by the name of Bail Organa; he was a very important figure in the galactic senate. So many people wanted him dead it would take all her different shape's fingers and toes to count them. She'd left it up to the one with the most money, and offered her services as a bounty hunter and assassin to the one who'd come out on top.

Peering through her sniper's scope, she noted that Organa was remarkably handsome, for someone constantly under the pressure of politics. Most politicians had graying hair and wrinkles by the age of thirty, but at nearly forty standard years, his hair still grew jet black and his skin smooth.

But enough admiration. She was here to kill this man, and nothing short of a Jedi would stop her. She aimed at the back of his neck and pulled the trigger.

And lo and behold, her rotten luck and tendency to forget to knock on wood came back to bite her in the back once again. A blur of orange, white, and blue was suddenly between them and the red bolt was sent hurtling back at her. The Togruta Jedi was young. The clawdite noted the lack of a Padawan braid. A young knight, then.

Taken aback by her sudden appearance, the bolt she had deflected grazed the bounty hunters shoulder. Zam gasped briefly in pain and staggered backwards before getting a hold of herself.

The Jedi handed Organa off to the guards and took off after Zam in a matter of seconds. She could see the blue of her lightsaber vanish into its silver hilt. Zam jumped from the roof of the building she had been on and down into the alley. Her feet splashed in a puddle as she ran. She needed a place to stash her rifle, and then she could shift into someone else and melt into the crowd. She found a crate and stuffed her rifle in it, and then shifted into her second favorite form. Her first favorite was a red-headed human female, but she had a bit of a reputation attached to that face.

Her second favorite was a female mirailian. Most of them were so completely docile, it was a perfect disguise. She squeezed the sphere she carried everywhere with her, and felt it speed her body along in its shape shifting. The long black hair, thick and heavy, was the first to come, and her skin and eyes followed suit. She flipped her usual pack inside out, it changing from a durable backpack to a dainty handbag in one simple step, grimacing as she felt blood start to flow from her shoulder wound. She pulled the thin black robe she carried everywhere around her body, concealing her purple jumpsuit. She pulled the hood up to cover her new hair, stuffed her weapons in her bag, and took a deep breath.

The entire process took less than ten seconds, and by the time the Jedi had followed her into the alley, she found not a bounty hunter, but a slender Mirailian pressed against the wall and trembling.

"Are you alright, miss?" The Jedi asked. "Did you see a bounty hunter come through here?"

"Sh-She went that way…she took my purse…" Zam said, trying to sound weak and frightened. The Togruta stepped forward and pulled the shape shifter's hand away from her shoulder. Zam was bleeding straight through her jumpsuit and her black cloak.

"You are hurt! Let me take a look at that!" The Jedi yanked off Zam's cloak and pulled her purple jumpsuit away from her shoulder. Without hesitating she tore a few long strips of cloth from the hem of her Jedi robe and tied them tightly around the wound, slowing the flow of blood. The Togruta fixed those endless onyx eyes on her and said, "You must come with me so we can get you medical attention!" Zam's eyes opened wide as the Jedi started to pick her up.

"But-the bounty hunter! She'll get away!"

"I can capture her murderous hide easily. I just do not want any to die on my watch."

Zam felt slightly offended that this Jedi dismissed her skill so easily, but forced herself back into her demure and shy mirailian façade. Letting this Jedi discover her would be the last mistake she would ever make. So, of course, it was a mistake she never planned to make.

She stayed silent as the Jedi carried her across the tops of buildings; jumping with all the grace and power only a Jedi could ever posses. Zam felt a brief sense of remorse that she was bleeding all over her fancy robes.

"I have a wounded civilian!" The Jedi said, speaking into a comlink at her wrist. Doing so involved an awkward looking twist of the young Jedi's neck. "Where should I take her?"

"Bring her to the temple," an unfamiliar voice said from the comlink. Zam was not surprised she did not know the voice. She knew no Jedi personally, and knew _of _only a few.

"I understand, Master Gallia," the Togruta said. She picked up the pace, not showing a single sign of slowing down.

"Here she is." They arrived at the temple, and Zam was starting to feel sleepy. A tall woman with chocolate colored skin and a tholothian headdress took Zam from the Togruta, and then she black out. She could only pray that her disguise would hold.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're awake! That's good." Zam's eyes snapped open to meet that of a frighteningly familiar Togruta. Her first thought was, 'am I still in my mirailian form?', and her second was, 'where am I?' She looked down at her hands and saw smooth olive skin. Thank Ghan…She hadn't shifted back while unconscious.

"I was a little worried about you." The Togruta had her head resting in one elegant orange hand, looking Zam over with orbs of onyx.

"Well…er…thank you for your concern, Master Jedi…" Zam dipped her head in polite respect. Even though she was certain this Jedi was barely a knight, the more ignorant she appeared, the less she was suspected. The Togruta laughed.

"I am just a knight, not a master yet. I will be, do not worry! But not yet. My name is Shaak Ti."

"Shaak Ti…" Zam let the name roll off her tongue. "Thank you very much for the rescue, Miss Ti. Did you happen to catch the bounty hunter who did it?"

"No. She got away. But no one was killed, and that is what matters." Shaak Ti gave another smile. "We did not catch your name in all the chaos before, so is there any way I could get it now?"

"Nanama," Zam said, the first vaguely-mirailian sounding name that popped into her head. "Nanama Hieyt."

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Heiyt," Ti said and shook her hand. Then the young Jedi stood and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Zam asked.

"I must go and inform the Jedi council that you are awake." She left, the doors opening around her with a _swish._ Zam's blood froze. The council would perform a background check, find that there was no such person as Nanama Heiyt, and would pry her mind open with the force. And then she would die, or spend the rest of her life in prison.

She jumped to her feet and called up the image of Shaak Ti in her head. She did not have her sphere handy, so she shifted without it. It was slightly painful and took a little longer than usual, but it got the job done. She found her bag on the floor beside her when she stood, and fished around until she found her holoprojector. She flipped through a few different standard Jedi robes she had installed on previous missions, and found one that looked close enough to Ti's to be passable. Then she opened the door and started looking for the exit.

Escaping was remarkably easy when one bore the appearance of a Jedi. Zam gained herself a small fighter with no effort, and was off Coruscant faster than she ever left a planet.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This one is short. Sorry. This also takes place about six years after the last chapter._

* * *

A slap across her face. She looked up to meet his eyes, and instead met his back.

"You are a failure. How did you allow this to happen? YOU were the one who became pregnant. YOU were the one who failed here, not me, Zam." He left the room.

The bounty hunter laid slowly down on her face, pressing it into the cool ground. Her breath was coming in labored gasps. She had been so, so stupid. So _stupid._

She thought he was genuine. He cared. He accepted her. And did. But he could not accept another life within her.

The door opened again. She did not move.

"Zam? Zam? Say something!" The voice was not that of her-former-lover. She looked up to meet a Mandalorian helmet.

"That bastard took your ship, and left you a note," her fellow bounty hunter and long time friend said. He handed it to her, but she ripped it into small pieces upon receiving it.

"Stupid thing," she said, glaring in the general vicinity of her stomach. "This is your fault."

Jango said nothing, but put his hand on her shoulder. Then he re-thought his silence. "Do not hate the baby, Zam. She has done nothing wrong." She swatted his hand away.

"She was created, that's what she did wrong! And what makes you think it's a 'she' anyway?" Her voice was a hoarse snarl.

"She can't help it," her friend said. "A child can be a blessing and an asset. I know this for a fact."

"There's a big difference between having a clone made of you and calling it a son and actually carrying a living creature in your body," she snapped. He took a step back.

"I can see that there is no reaching you. I'll come back in an hour when you've cooled down, and that's the last time I'm trying to help." He stepped out the door. Walking down the blank white corridor and thankfully running into no Kaminoans, he let his thoughts wander. Zam was the closest thing to a friend Jango had ever had. Usually he was not a soft man, but he made an exception for her.

"Dad?" A three-year-old Boba Fett asked his father stalked into their quarters. "It it true that Zam is having a baby?"

"Where did you hear that?" the older man snapped.

"Roster told me before he left…"

Jango almost snarled. That bastard.

"Excuse me, Mister Fett?" A kaminoan-sounding voice said at the door. "It seems someone is taking off in your ship." He flung open the door and rushed out to the landing pad where Slave I had been docked. A note was taped to the door, safe from Kamino's omnipresent rain.

_Jango, _it read.

_I swear I'll bring Slave I back. In around nine months. Don't look for me. You won't find me. I'll come back. As soon as I get rid of this parasite. You can use any of my ships. Hell, you can crash them, for all I care._

_Don't miss me._

_ -Zam Wessel_

Jango swore and jumped into one of the Kaminoan's ships.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Last chapter. I enjoyed writing this a lot._

* * *

She kept her word. Nine months later, the clone wars in full swing, a certain clawdite bounty hunter returned to Kamino. She was met with several cold-faced Kaminoans who told her Jango was dead, and she may want to go far away.

"How can he be dead?" She asked. "He was always careful. He's smart. He wouldn't get killed on a job."

"It was Jedi," one of the Kaminoans said. "Mace Windu, master of the order."

Zam snorted. "Bullshit. If a Jedi really did kill Jango, I'd put six blaster bolts through his head before he could blink. Where's Boba? I'd like to talk to him."

"He is not on Kamino," Lama Su said. "We do not track his whereabouts."

Zam yanked out her gun and pointed it at the white head atop the tall white neck.

"Don't screw with me, Lama Su. Where is he?"

And then the tip of a blue blade appeared in the center of the clawdite's collar bone, her mouth opened in an 'o' shape, and she slumped to the floor.

"I do not think you had to kill her, Master Jedi," Lama Su said.

"She was threatening your life, Prime Minister. That cannot go unnoticed," the Jedi said, sheathing her blade and dipping her head. "I am here to protect you and oversee the growth of the clones. I would hardly be doing my job if I let you be shot while I stood idly by."

"Still, she was good woman. But I understand. Thank you for your protection," he said, turning his back to the Jedi as if to leave. But he had one last thing to say. "I think you and she would have been friends had circumstances been different, Master Ti."

The Togruta bowed her head. "I am sure we would have been, prime minister."


End file.
